


Breathless

by chiiyo86



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Buried Alive, Crying, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-02-29 04:32:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18771268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiiyo86/pseuds/chiiyo86
Summary: Percy finds himself buried alive after a cave-in, with Nico as his only hope for a rescue.





	Breathless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salazarastark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazarastark/gifts).



> Hope you enjoy the treat!

_This is fine, this is fine, this is fine._

Percy had been repeating that mantra in his mind for a while now and it was becoming less and less convincing. So, okay, the situation could have been a lot worse. He could have been injured—from a quick limb count he knew that he wasn’t, other than some scrapes and a bump on his forehead. He could have lost his sword—Riptide always popped back into his pocket in pen form, for all the good it was doing him right now. He could have… well, that was it for silver linings. He really wasn’t a fan of tight spaces, but gods, anybody would have been freaking out at finding themselves trapped in a small recess at the back of a cave, behind a wall of fallen stones, with so little space that they couldn’t sit up properly, much less stand up, and couldn’t even extend their arms. Not that Percy was freaking out, of course.

How did one end up buried alive on a Wednesday afternoon? Well, it was all in a day’s work for a demigod. He’d been fighting a chimera, which was always a fun experience, even when it didn’t result in a cave-in. At least the stones must have killed the chimera. Hopefully. He’d tried using his powers to get himself out, but he could feel no water nearby and he was too exhausted to be able to generate any on his own.

“This is fine, this is fine,” Percy chanted under his breath.

He tried to sit up straighter, because his neck and shoulders ached from keeping himself stooped, but it only resulted in bumping his already abused head on the stone. It was in moments like this that he regretted not having a cellphone like any other mortal boy his age. Although maybe he wouldn’t get reception in here and the phone would only add to his frustration. Yeah, better to think about it that way. 

He’d been searching the area for the chimera with Nico, so even though they hadn’t been together when Percy had come across the monster, Nico should start worrying about him at some point. Gods, if only there were enough space inside the cave, Nico would just need to shadow-travel in and out to free Percy. Providing he knew where to find Percy, of course. 

Was it getting harder to breathe? It felt like it was, but it might as well have been Percy’s mind playing tricks on him. In movies, when someone was buried alive, there was always another character who was smart enough to calculate how much available oxygen they had and how much time until they choked to death. Percy wasn’t smart enough by a long shot, but from the very narrow space his educated guess would be, _not very long_.

He closed his eyes. It didn’t make any difference in terms of darkness, but it made him feel a little better to not be able to see anything because he had his eyes closed rather than because there was no light to see. He rested his head against the stone wall at his back and tried to relax.

Next thing he knew, he woke up with a gasp. Had he fallen asleep? He could fall asleep pretty much anywhere, but this was stretching the ‘ _anywhere_ ’ a little too far. Had he fainted? He was too hot and sweat ran down his face like pouring rain. He was definitely having a hard time breathing now, his lungs straining from the effort of trying to draw a full breath. 

_This is fine_

But, shit, no, it _wasn’t_. How long had he been trapped here? How long would he have to wait before he could hope for rescue? In a fit of uncontrolled, frustrated panic he shot a hand forward and it hit one of the rocks that blocked his way. Tears of pain prickled his eyes as he cradled his bruised hand against his chest. It hurt, but at least he could focus on that rather than on how hard it was to breathe.

_Dad, please, a little help would be super welcome right now._

“Percy?”

For a mad second, Percy thought it was his father answering his prayer, but the voice was too young to be his dad’s.

“Wha—what?” he mumbled, unsticking his tongue from the roof of his dry mouth with difficulty.

“Percy, it’s Nico.”

This absolutely couldn’t be Nico. He was a scrawny guy, but there was barely enough space for just Percy here. Was he hallucinating? He thought he might have heard somewhere that a lack of oxygen could cause hallucinations, but he wasn’t sure he hadn’t made this up.

“You’re not here,” he said to his possible auditory hallucination.

“No, I’m not,” the hallucination agreed. “I’m using the shad—speak to you.”

The voice faded in and out like a radio with bad reception, but it was unmistakably Nico’s. Percy hadn’t known that Nico could use the shadows like that, but he discovered new ways to use his own powers every day, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

“You okay?” Nico’s disembodied voice asked.

 _No_. “Yeah.”

“—getting you out. I’m almost—hold on, okay?”

“Okay,” Percy said, because what else could he say? There wasn’t anything he could do but wait.

Lack of oxygen might have also slowed down his brain, because it was only when he felt and heard the pile of fallen rocks shake that he realized that Nico was using his earth-related powers to get him out. This was normally more Hazel’s realm than his, but Percy had seen him make the earth shake before. Would he be able to free Percy without crashing the cave over his head? At this point, Percy didn’t care about the risk as long as there was a chance that he might leave this prison of stone.

The rocks shook again and a crack appeared, letting some light filter in, bright enough that Percy had to blink against it. The crack widened by increments—much too slowly for Percy’s tastes, even though he knew that Nico was just trying to be careful. 

Eventually Percy heard Nico call his name again, except that this time it was coming from the hole between the rocks. “Percy? Percy, can you hear me?”

“Yeah,” Percy croaked, then flinched at how rough he sounded.

“I think it’s wide enough for you to slip through. I don’t dare to make it bigger. Just—here, take my hand.”

Percy grabbed the hand that poked out of the hole and let it pull him out. It was a tight fit, and he gained a few new scrapes in the process, but he managed to go through the gap and get out on the other side with all of his limbs attached. He stumbled, unsteady on his feet, but Nico caught him and then Percy found himself half-slumped against Nico’s chest with his nose buried in the space between Nico’s shoulder and his neck. He was shaking like a leaf.

“Um, Percy?” Nico said timidly. “Are you—"

“I’m fine,” Percy muttered.

He wasn’t, not really, but he would be once he had a moment. He just needed a moment to pull himself together. They were standing at the entrance of the cave where Percy had fought the chimera. It was bright outside and Percy’s vision was still too blurry to make out details. His eyes burned and his chest hurt, but it was only when the tears wetted his cheeks that Percy realized with mortification that he was crying.

“Are you crying?” Nico asked, sounding horrified.

“No,” Percy said in a choked voice. 

He drew back from Nico but it only made the crushing weight on his chest get worse. Even though there was enough air in the open cave, he was having trouble breathing again. His chest was heaving too fast as he uselessly tried to draw oxygen.

“Percy? Styx, what do I—Uh, Percy, you’re okay. You’re out, it’s fine now.”

Nico held his shoulders, sprouting futile words of reassurance. It wasn’t that Percy didn’t _know_ that he was out of danger. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to danger either, or to almost dying—but usually he had a fighting chance against whatever was trying to kill him, even though it sometimes was only a very small one. Behind that wall of rocks he’d been utterly _powerless_.

His crying quickly turned into awkward choking, gasps and hiccups and way too little oxygen, to the point that he was getting lightheaded. Was it some sort of panic attack? He’d never had one of those before. If this one didn’t kill him, he very much hoped he wouldn’t get another ever again.

Nico was starting to sound pretty desperate too. “Percy, please, I don’t know what to do. Tell me what I can do.” Even if Percy had known what to do, he couldn’t speak at all. Nico must have had the same thought because he muttered a string of muffled curses in Greek. “Gods, just calm down, I can’t—shit. Shit.”

Percy had closed his eyes, because looking at Nico while he half-sobbed, half-choked was way too embarrassing, so it was a complete shock to feel lips press against his. The pressure was firm, the lips cool and chafed. Percy’s eyes shot open and he saw Nico’s wide dark eyes stare back at him. For a moment, all he could hear was the sound of his own thundering heart.

Nico pulled away first. In fact he kind of shoved himself away from Percy, stumbling a few steps back. He pressed his hand against his mouth like he wanted to wipe it, which was rich considering that _he_ was the one who’d initiated the kiss. Percy’s lips still tingled a little from it and he resisted the urge to lick them.

 _Hades. Nico just kissed me_.

“Uh,” he said. At least he wasn’t choking anymore, although he now felt so tired that he could have fallen asleep standing. “Thanks?”

Nico’s face was beet-red. “Are you okay now?” he asked brusquely. 

“Yeah. I think.” And kind of bemused, but from the expression on Nico’s face he thought it might not be wise to mention it.

“Good. Good.” Nico turned away, facing the entrance of the cave. “If you’re feeling up to it, we should go back. I’ll take you home.”

“Yeah, let’s go back.”

“And don’t—I mean, I was just trying to help.”

“I know. Thank you.”

“You said it already. This doesn’t—” Nico made an abrupt motion of the hand that could have meant anything. “Don’t get any idea, okay?”

“Okay. I won’t.”

This obviously wasn’t the moment to ask why Nico’s reflex when he couldn’t calm down Percy with words had been to kiss him, or to examine too closely his own reaction to it. Right now he just wanted to go home and sleep for a month. He grabbed the hand that Nico was holding out to him, giving it a squeeze of thanks that made Nico bite his lips and bow down his head so that hair fell into his eyes. Together, they melted into the shadows.


End file.
